Districts with senior water rights may get boost after March rains

Where water will flow this spring and summer is still up in the air, but it is looking likely that "senior water rights" holders in the Sacramento Valley will have their contracts honored.

More certainty will be worked out in the next few weeks.

Agencies with junior water rights will still be scrambling, and some water users are still scheduled to receive zero.

One reason the senior water rights are noteworthy, is that if they were not honored, it could have set a new precedent or lead to lawsuits.

Senior water rights

"Senior water rights" are those held before Shasta and Oroville reservoirs were built. At that time, existing water users signed contracts for how much water they would receive dependent upon water flow.

For example, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, has a water entitlement of 825,000 acre-feet of water dating back to the 1880s.

One acre-foot equal 325,851 gallons, about as much water as is used by four residents in a year.

The contract states that if water flowing into Lake Shasta is less than 3.2 million acre-feet, the water contract can be cut back to 75 percent.

However, in February the Bureau of Reclamation said 40 percent would be provided, less water than the contract provided. This was unchartered territory.

Glenn-Colusa won't have news for a few more weeks, but is hopeful the amount will be 75 percent of its water rights, which would abide by their contract.

Western Canal Water District has a contract that can decrease water delivery to 50 percent if unimpaired inflow to Lake Oroville dips below 600,000 acre-feet.

But the recent storms bring the predicted inflow to 640,000 acre-feet of water.

Robert Cooke, chief of the State Water Project Analysis Office, said Friday that he is hopeful Western Canal will receive 100 percent of their water amount. Yet, it'll be several more days before the agency can verify that enough water is available.

"DWR is updating this modeling study and will have results next week," a letter sent to Western Canal Thursday stated.

To "eke out" supply

During a conference call with reporters Wednesday, DWR Director Mark Cowin mentioned water transfers, and the hope that Northern California water users would take part.

Western Canal Water district has been working for months on environmental documents in anticipation of possible water transfers. These are ready to go.

Yet, when the word was that only half the water would be available, the plan was to keep the water local.

Now that it looks like there will be full supply, the state has reiterated that transfers would help out water users in other parts of the state.

"They want us to help them out," said Ted Trimble, manager of Western Canal said earlier this week.

Cooke of DWR concurred Friday.

"We are asking contractors if they can find a way to transfer some of the water to areas that are in need, that they can work that out."

District waits for fish

Glenn-Colusa, which recently received news of 40 percent water supply, hopes that a deal to delay water delivery will help increase their water supply to 75 percent from the Sacramento River.

The latest offer by Glenn-Colusa has been to wait until mid-May to start planting. This would leave water in Lake Shasta to release later in spring when endangered winter-run salmon are spawning.

The offer does not guarantee the 75 percent water supply in Glenn-Colusa's contract, but manager Thad Bettner said he is hopeful.

More should be known in the next few weeks, he said.

To get this far, there's been a lot of outreach with the Department of Water Resources, National Marine Fisheries, State Water Resources Control Board ... "We reached out to the Nature Conservancy, Golden Gate Salmon Association and federal agencies to keep them up to speed," Bettner said.

Trimble, at Western Canal, said nobody wants to see senior water rights contracts breached.

"They're following the rules and not breaching contracts. That is huge for us," Trimble said last week.

As is the case for all water users in the state, "We're hoping a couple of rainstorms in late April and May still happen," Trimble said.